When I recently lost my HTC Wildfire S, I visited my local friendly dealer and said I needed a smartphone with a "proper" keyboard, as I had difficulties with so-called touchscreeens. That seemingly limited my choice to a Blackberry.

However, my dealer said that for most Blackberries one had to pay 4-6 euros per month extra to the mobile service provider. He thought, however, this was not the case with the 9800 Torch, and I bought a used one from him, with guarantee.

The first recommended step is to set up an email account. When I clicked in the Set Up icon on Email Accounts, up came a screen which started "To activate your enterprise account..".But I do not want an enterprise account. So I checked with p. 73 of the 350 page 9800 Torch Manual, and found:
Set up an email address
1. On the Home screen, click the
Setup icon.
2. In the Setup
section, click the
Email Accounts icon.
3. Follow the screens to set up your email address. When your email address is set up correctly, you receive a confirmation message. To view and manage your email messages, on the Home screen, click the Messages icon.
Note: In some cases, you might see the following options. If so, select one of the options.
•
Internet Mail Account
: Use this option to associate your BlackBerry® device with one or more existing email accounts (for
example, Windows Live™ Hotmail®) or to create a new email address for your device.
•
Enterprise Account
: If your administrator gave you an enterprise activation password, use this option to associate yourdevice with your work email account using the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server.

If you are trying to set up a Internet email account (for example, Windows Live™ Hotmail®) or a new email address for your device, and do not see this option, contact your administrator or wireless service provider.

I did not see the option to set up an Internet email account, and when I contacted my provider he said there would be a charge.

So I would like to know whether the Torch supports a (free) Internet email account or not. And if not, why is this option mentioned specifically in the handbook for the 9800 manual, though with ifs and buts ( as italicized above by myself).

I returned the Torch to my dealer, and told him I was ready to pay him if he could implement the free Internet email account he had implied was possible. He kept the machine over the weekend, and last Monday phoned to say that only the latest Blackberry costing €600 locally offers this.

I am unwilling to pay 4-6 euros monthly for a feature provided by all other smartphones without a seemingly obligatory enterprise feature.

What is the experience of other 9800 Torch owners?

It seems to me that Blackberry has here been blatantly dishonest, compelling users to pay extra for a feature that probably most non-business users do not want, and at the expense of many apps offered by Android and Windows systems. This is possibly a major reason for the sacking of the Android management and a third of its staff.